One For Sorrow, Two For Joy
by OnnaMurcielago666
Summary: "One for sorrow and two for joy, /Three for a girl and four for a boy, /Five for silver, six for gold, /And seven for a secret never to be told." - Toby's strange nightmares, Jareth's wicked brothers, Sarah's undecided fears; the Labyrinth, like God, does not play with dice and does not operate itself on coincidence. (I WOULD LOVE SOME FEEDBACK ON THIS STORY, IT'S BEEN A WHILE.)
1. Chapter 1

The fall into the oubliette was harsh, the Helping Hands no longer helpful with the entirety of the labyrinth so dull and weak, and he hit the trap door with a harsh thud before it caved beneath his weight. He fell with a heavy cloud of dust and sand, what little breath he had left from the fall leaving him in a whoosh as he lay there in the dust, his once resplendent clothes filthy and tattered.

Jareth, the Goblin King of the Great Underground, was defeated, and he lay there in the grime for several moments until his aching limbs reordered themselves and he could sit up a little. Instantly, knowing where the doors and ladders led, Jareth threw back the coarse bit of fabric covering the wood plank, and he grinned before, upon opening it to what should have been the way out, he opened it to solid stone. He scowled, eyes wide,and each option only opened on more disappointment.

Jareth could hardly summon a simple scrying crystal, let alone conjure a door.

Sighing faintly in the blackness of the oubliette, the little orb appeared slowly in his hand, half forming before he could give it a second burst of strength and finish it. In it, he could already see the images he wanted, foggy and warped by the imperfect thing he'd attempted to call up, and his heart beat faintly as he let himself recline, eyes lingering on the smears of colour and form.

"Sarah..." He felt drowsy, sleepy as though he had been eating enchanter peaches and sipping decanters of honeyed wine. "Help me, Sarah..."

And that was when Toby woke up, shaking his older sister from her studies with a loud cry, his poor little limbs trembling as he sat up in bed and struggled to speak.

"SAAAARAAAAAHH!" He sobbed, head thrown back as he cried harshly into the night. It had been years and years since he'd seen the Goblin King, too many years for him to remember his face, or his hair, or the fear, but he wasn't afraid of this strange dream now. He felt so terribly sad.

"Toby?" In the other room, Sarah pulled out her second earphone in surprise at the shout and tried not to be irritated. Outside, in the harsh rains that pelted against her window, there was enough racket to frighten anyone, so she stiffly got to her feet and wandered up to her brother's bedroom.

She had left for school two years ago almost, but with her Reading Week in place, she had been glad to come for a few days to look after Toby. Her father was up in Canada for business, something about a conference, and Irene had needed a little break from her son and the empty house, so Sarah had gladly stepped in. It saved her from buying groceries for the weekend.

She left the lights off, the steet light outside illuminating his toys and other hazards enough for her, and she sat on the edge of his bed softly as she opened her arms to him. "Toby... what's wrong, soldier?" She smiled at him a little. "Run out of ammo?"

"No," Toby scrambled forward, snuffling harshly, and he whimpered against her shoulder as his arms locked around her neck. "No, Sarah, I had a bad dream! About the crow man again!"

"Ooo, scary. Half-man, half-crow. That's the worst!" Sarah rubbed his back gently, trying to soothe him, and she smiled at the idea of a funny-looking man with a beak and bird feet. "Did he eat bird seed or worms?"

"Sa-rah!" Toby looked up at her crossly, frowning as the tears dried on his cheeks. "Nobody eats WORMS. And he wasn't like that! He was a man who is a crow, and he's bad! He and the hawk man hurt the pretty bird man! They threw him in a hole!"

"Probably an oubliette." She chuckled to herself, remembering an encounter with one such hole.

"He's gonna DIE!" Toby wailed, his voice warbling out in the dark as he clung to her. "He's all alone and he's gonna die down there! The knight isn't coming to save him!" HE held her tightly, obviously very upset by the whole thing, and she frowned softly as she rubbed his back and rocked him lazily as he drifted off again in her arms. She thought about what he was saying a little, surprised he had brought something so sad into his mind, and she wondered if everything was alright. After the Labyrinth, he had always been a little odd... and it had begun to show more and more as he grew.

"It's nothing." She decided aloud, slowly easing her brother back down onto the mattress as she tucked him in again. "Just a bad dream..." He was sleeping sweetly again, his breathing even, and Sarah was glad to see him resting peacefully again. "Sleep tight, Captain Toby. See you in the morning."

Sarah smoothed down her shirt at the front as she closed her brother's door again, making a side trip to the bathroom, and she shrieked sharply when she saw someone pressed against the other side of the mirror.

"HOGGLE?!" Closing the door hurriedly in case Toby got up again, Sarah hurried forward to lean on the counter, her eyes wide as they could be, and she felt her heart pound hard against her ribs.

"SARAH!" The dwarf looked at her with wide eyes, older and more hunched since she had seen him last, and he banged his hands on the other side frantically. "Sarah, something awful happened! We need yer help!"


	2. Chapter 2

"SARAH!" The dwarf looked at her with wide eyes, older and more hunched since she had seen him last, and he banged his hands on the other side frantically. "Sarah, something awful happened! We need yer help!"

"What?" Sarah's heart clenched. "Is everyone alright? Ludo? Sir Dydimus? What's happening?!" She had no hesitations in getting up on the counter to press closer, her eyebrows crumpling together on her pale forehead worriedly as her hands covered his through the mirror. She could almost feeling him. "Is... Is **he **alright?" She didn't dare say his name, but she had to ask.

"Sarah, the Labyrinth- the city- it's all under attack!" Hoggle told her, breathing hard like he'd been running. "Jareth's been cast from the throne, we're lookin for him, but we're not findin him! And the Labyrinth's magic is waning! We need yer help!"

Sarah's eyes widened, her heart pounding against her ribs, and she pulled back from the mirror a bit as the news shook her more than she would have liked it to. Jareth was gone? The Labyrinth was in danger? Her mind flew to Toby for one almost hysterical moment and her breath caught in her throat, feeling like her body had sealed itself shut for her thoughts to incubate in and never air out.

His nightmare; the pretty bird man; could it be?!

"Toby..." Sarah whispered, her eyes wide and horrified, and suddenly the bathroom door was open and Sarah was tearing down the hallway.

"Sarah?" Hoggle strained to follow, smacking into the side of her mirror, and he groaned as he was forced to wait. "Sarah?! Sarah!"

"Toby?!" Sarah threw her brother's door open to find him sitting up for her, already awake and looking terribly frightened. "Toby, listen! I need you to tell me about the crow man again! And the pretty bird man! What happened?!" She flew to his bedside in a hurry, her hair falling out of the bun she'd pulled it into somewhat to keep it out of her face, and she grabbed his shoulders tightly, her face tense. "Toby, **please**, this is very important and-"

"I know." He whimpered, his eyes still as blue as ever and only growing paler as he aged. "Sarah, we need to help the pretty bird man..."

Eyes softening at the innocent sight and sighing, Sarah pushed her hair back and asked, "Toby, please... can you tell me about the pretty bird man?"

"He's a bad man, Sarah, **really **bad." Toby told her in a hushed, childish voice, pulling up his covers. "He's big, with lots of hair, and he's a great big scary king... but he's so sad. **So **sad, Sarah. He needs your help." When Toby looked up at her again, eyes horrifyingly wide, he grimaced and tugged on her shirt weakly. "...will you help him, Sarah?"

_"Sarah, something awful happened! We need yer help!"_

_"Sarah, we need to help the pretty bird man..."_

_"...the Labyrinth's magic is waning! We need yer help!"_

_"...will you help him, Sarah?"_  
_"Sarah?"_  
_"...help me_-"  
_"Sarah..."_

Sighing and releasing her brother, Sarah's gut knotted anxiously as she stood up and pulled his little hands away from her sadly, his eyes begging her to say 'yes', but she wasn't sure. What could she do? Running a maze was different than saving a kingdom, or saving a king for that matter. What did Jareth need her for, moral support? This had to be some kind of trick...

"Maybe, but try to sleep, okay?" Sarah appeased, struggling with a smile. "I'm going to finish my readings..."

"But the pretty-" "That overstuffed feather-duster will be fine." Sarah said softly, kissing his forehead. "I'll handle it. I promise."

"Pinky swear?" Sarah hesitated when Toby held his little finger out to her hopefully, eyes shining with unshed tears, and couldn't help but smile at the innocent gesture. Looping her bigger finger around his, Sarah hooked them together and shook them once, nodding.

"Pinky swear."

When Sarah returned to the bathroom, she looked a little shaken, but Hoggle was pressed anxiously at the mirror's edge and he shifted restlessly when she reappeared, eyes as wide and desperately blue as her brother's. "Sarah, what was it? What's going on?"

"My brother, he's been having nightmares recently." She told him leaning heavily on the counter top with her head in one hand. She quickly pulled the clip from her hair, the dark waves falling down over her shoulders and back like a silk drape, and she sighed heavily. "Crows, and birds, and 'the pretty bird man'... I think he's in the oubliette."

"The Oub-" Hoggle looked puzzled, then horrified, and his waxy, wrinkled face went pale. "Sarah, the Oubliette was only opened for **your** trial! Jareth ordered me to take the door away ages ago!" He began to worry his gnarled hands in one another, her plastic bracelet from long ago still around one wrist, and Sarah's heart throbbed for his concern. His king may not have been a kind one, but he watched over all the goblins and creatures in his kingdom as was needed, and now his people needed him returned.

"Can't you put the door back then?" She smiled, feeling a little calmer as she tried to think of a plan. And maybe the haughty Goblin King would think twice before dropping anyone in that hole after spending a bit of time in it himself. It might do him some good, this exodus in the dark.

"Not without His Majesty's magic operating inside." Hoggle said quietly, looking a little anxious. "That's why we need ye, Sarah. Yer the champion. Ye have t' help him."

"I-" Sarah reared back a little, bouncing between horror and shock, and she stuttered: "Hoggle, I'm not a champion! Last time, I beat him! Why would I help him?!" She couldn't believe Hoggle was asking her to go to that monster's aide.

"Because, Sarah..." Hoggle said solemnly, looking down at his shoes. "Jareth's heart is tied to the Labyrinth. It's his magic that keeps it all alive, an with him so weak an all, the world is just... driftin away. Like dust. Dydimus' stupid little outpost is gone... the Fade ate up the Bog like it was nothin."

"'The Fade'?" Sarah could see the dread in Hoggle's eyes and wondered what had appeared in the Bog's place to put that expression there. "What do you mean? How can something just eat a whole bog? Where did it go?!"

"Nobody knows." Hoggle told her quietly, "All we knows is that one day it was there, as stinky as ever, an the next... just black. Black so thick ye'd think ye'd gone blind. An not a soul that's gone in lookin for Dydimus ever came out. Even that rat pack Wild Gang. Their forest is gone too."

Sarah couldn't believe what she was hearing, her heart pounding fiercely as she imagined it, the blackness that swallowed the work like a veil, spreading like sickness through the narrow twists and changing turns until even the Castle Beyond the Goblin City was overcome by darkness and devoured. Everything, everyone... anyone.

Sarah, eyes misty at the news of Dydimus' loss, went to turn away when suddenly her hand burned fiercely like she'd touched a hot burner and she cried out. When she looked down, her pained pinky finger was darkened around the base, as if she'd drawn a little black ring around it, and she whimpered as she leaned on the counter again and the pain receded.

"A promise ring!" Hoggle yelped, pressing against the glass incredulously as she lifted her hand to inspect it in the light. Her guts twisted, knowing what she must do, but her heart was fluttering around in her chest like a caged bird and she felt her legs tremble. "Sarah, where'd ya get somethin like that?!"

Sarah's eyes locked on the ring dismally as she realized she didn't have a choice. Even pulling away from the mirror had been agonizing, and she had no other choice than to fulfill her promise. She had to go into the labyrinth, had to save Jareth, or die trying.


	3. Chapter 3

"Hoggle," Sarah said softly, pulling her hair back from her face again and feeling her chest constrict around her lungs. "how do I get in? If the magic is weak, I can't just wish myself back, can I?" She looked at him anxiously, hoping there was a way to help, and she felt her guts flutter; she couldn't believe she was really doing this. her breath held, hoping there might be no way after all, but Hoggle smiled at her, eyes disappearing behind wrinkles as he placed his hands against the glass again and didn't seem to register any of her hesitance.

"Place yer hands like mine, an think real hard. Well, don't think about hard. Think about goin through yer mirror, an I'll pull." He told her quickly, patting the glass on his side. "It's simple, really." He looked up at her expectantly while she looked down at her clothes, feeling her heart sink, and she regarded herself harshly.

No shoes, no coat.

Nothing of use.

"Alright." Sarah sighed and got up on the counter quietly, resigned to her promise to her brother, and she slowly but surely places her hands over his. She swore she could feel the warmth through the glass, but she wasn't sure, and she pushed a little more firmly against it, to make him chuckle. "On three?"

He chuckled dryly and shook his head at her. "On three."

"One." She closed her eyes softly, taking a deep breath, and tried to imagine herself sliding through the mirror like it was a hologram, as smooth as silk.

"Two." Hoggle said roughly, his voice seeming to ring in her ears as she leaned in further. She felt like she couldn't breathe, her lungs pressed in a vice, and it made her heart pound fiercely. "Come on, Sarah, don't be scared..."

"I'm **not** scared." She insisted harshly, her eyes snapping open, and she blinked in shock as she looked around. She was there! Gasping and looking at Hoggle's smug smirk, she had a feeling she had been there as soon as her eyes had closed, and she pulled her hands back hurriedly. "Well, that was easy."

"Says **you**." Hoggle scoffed, "I was the one doin all the pullin! Now come on, we need to save Jareth!" He tugged on her arm, her t-shirt providing no protection from the wind, and she gasped a little as a breeze blew back her hair. Wow, that was cold. She glanced back, the image of her bathroom disappearing from the pond he'd obviously been using to speak with her, and she wished she hadn't taken off her cardigan before she'd gone to see Toby. "Sarah, hurry!"

"Hoggle," She sighed, letting him drag her a few steps before she could follow along behind him. "I'm not exactly dressed for saving anybody... and it's gotten so cold. Is there anywhere I can get something to wear?" As she spoke, her foot caught a rock and she winced, trying to avoid anything underfoot that might hurt but failing. "Even just shoes..."

"We'll stop." Hoggle assured her, "But not here. It's not safe here anymore. We can get ye some shoes before we enter the Labyrinth, an then you'll set everythin right again."

"I still don't understand why you need **me**," Sarah huffed softly as she followed Hoggle along the trail, wincing and trying to walk on her toes to spare her already-aching soles. "I mean, couldn't someone else do? Sir Dydimus is a knight, and Ludo... or the Goblin Corps, there's hundreds of them. How could I do what they can't?"

"Yer Jareth's champion." Hoggle said, pausing just beyond the outskirts of the wood to look back at her. "Ye solved the Labyrinth, defeated him, and got hyer brother back... You may have defeated im, but that means its also yer job t' defend him. That's what the champion does. It's a like a... a game, I suppose. An' sides" -He paused to pull up his sagging belt. "ye know the way through. Who better to go in than the girl who got out?"


	4. Chapter 4

When Hoggle finally led her into the rough outlines of a yard, some strange-looking plants growing in what could have been a garden, her eyes widened and she stopped to watch him push the door open and take a few steps in. The structure was small, just big enough for her to hunch in, and her eyes tried to take in every bit of it as Hoggle bustled around her, grumbling about something.

"Well, do ye want some shoes for yerself or not?" He grunted, beckoning her inside. "We don't have time for you t' stare at every little thing like a changeling!" His house fit him well, filled with shiny jewels and bits of jewelry and scrap probably filched from the Junk Wastes just outside the city's stone borders. "Sit down an' I'll find ye somethin t' wear."

Sarah plopped into a chair, the twenty-something's weight making it's legs creak and groan, and she settled herself awkwardly in a chair probably more fitting to Toby's seven year-old weight. "Sorry... I've just never seen your house before. It's nice."

"Pah," Hoggle tried to scoff off his embarrassment, rifling through a chest and tossing a few vests and patched pairs of trousers aside before he unearthed a pair of ragged, open toed boots with frayed laces. He held one up to the light, checking the soles with a grunt before they fell at his feet, and he continued searching with a grumble. "it's too small, an cluttered, an its fallin apart in most places."

"I like it." Sarah told him honestly, "It's lived in. It feels warm, like a home." She wasn't ashamed to smile at him brightly, head tilted ever so slightly to one side, and her smile grew a little when he huffed and turned away from her bashfully. Finally, he pulled out a pair of unevenly knit socks, the kind your well-meaning aunt makes you for Christmas and forgets to make sure are even at the tops, and he handed them to her gruffly.

"Here, put these on, an we can go." He told her, turning around and shuffling up a small ladder. "Now, let's see if I can find somethin t' cover yer arms... got cold round these parts when the Fade came in." He rustled about upstairs as Sarah pulled the funny socks over her feet, the loosely-knitted yarn revealing the sparkly purple she'd painted her toes the night before, and she huffed sternly. As if she was about to balk at the Goblin King teasing her for her polish; she tugged the boots onto her feet stubbornly, having to unlace them to their loosest setting.

When she stood up, the open toes of the formerly sturdy boots showed off both the yarn and her nails, but she refused to change. If Jareth wanted her help, he could take what he would get, or so help her. Hoggle tossed her a cloak that looked more like a patchwork quilt and a small jacket that barely managed to cover her chest. She glanced at herself in the mirror, her long her a little ruffled in her clip, in the broken boots and the little jacket, and she nodded sternly as she threw the cloak around her shoulders and gladly let it drape around her.

"This is perfect, thank you." She told him, showing off her motley outfit, and he laughed at her as she twirled for his benefit. The boots laced up over the cuffs of her jeans thankfully, keeping the breeze out of her legs, and the jacket clung tightly to her bare arms to secure the warmth to her skin.

"'Perfect'?" He snorted, leaving the house again and making double sure to lock his door after she'd left. "If this is 'perfect', I dunno what yer comparin it to. Ain't no castle, tha's fer sure."

Glancing back at the hut as they left, passing his little stone edge fence, Sarah smiled at the shrinking silhouette of Hoggle's house and shrugged wordlessly, seeing it pointless to argue. "Whatever you say, Hoggle." He led her to the Labyrinth's gates, the once clinging vines withered and dry where they clung frailly to the wood and stone, and Sarah winced. The Labyrinth had lost it's vibrant sparkle, its magic glow. It felt ill to her, and weakened by the strange force, and it made Sarah's guts churn weakly as she approached it and tentatively touched the stone. It was cold and damp to the touch, like a sweaty forehead, and for a moment Sarah worried about the king Hoggle was so desperate to find; was he suffering the same if his heart -however black and small- was tied to the Labyrinth?

In the darkness, Jareth's breath wheezed out a little easier at the touch, the hand against the cold stone making his lashes flutter, and he stared up through the slats in the Oubliette hatch at the faintest bit of light shining down from the cracks in the trap door. The hands had long fallen silent, having grown tired to speaking to someone who barely had the energy to open his mouth, and Jareth's ears longed for the noise.

Anything to disrupt the black.

Head turning listlessly to the side, Jareth looked at the crystal clutched in one hand and felt his lips curve upward just slightly as he watched Sarah's lips move silently to Hoggle, unable to conjure the sound of her voice from the image, and his eyes closed briefly. The champion -**his** champion- was returning to her victory grounds; it wouldn't be long now.

"It's so cold..." She murmured softly, unaware of the observations of the weakened king.

"It's sick." Hoggle said, his voice tinged with sadness. It's been like this for days, an it's only gettin worse. Nobody's got a way t' stop it. It just keeps gettin sicker." He touched the wall too, tracing a brick, and his fingers came away with a bit of the mortar that crumbled under his hands. "Wastin away like a bramble bush in the dead a winter."

"Then we need to hurry." Sarah was dismayed to find the wood doors propped half-open, her gut sinking when Hoggle told her nothing opened on its own any more without a pry bar or some serious muscle, and she slipped in first to help him through. She had been expecting change, but the cold, damp mist hugging the ground and the bits of rubble from the toppling walls made her let out a choked sound of dismay. She held no love for the king, or any real attachment to the maze that she had triumphed, but the sight of the world she'd left behind in such disrepair made her heart throb.

She looked at Hoggle, seeing now why he had looked so grim. "We need to find him."

**Everyone, thank you so much for being so enthusiastic about my story. ^^ I've been in a major writer's block for the longest time, and this is just a little attempt to get out of a dull slump I've fallen into, and I appreciate all the positive responses I'm getting!**

**I love to hear from anyone on any part of the story or my writing style, as it only helps me improve, so please don't be afraid to comment or send me a PM.**

**Onward and upward, as they say. ^^ Hope you enjoyed chapter four!**


	5. Chapter 5

"She thinks she's going to swoop in and snatch our little hatchling up." Smirked a tall figure, his dark hair swept back from his face charmingly despite his narrowed eyes and his straight, narrow nose. He banished the crystal, crushing it soundlessly in his hand and letting the pieces disappear from existence, and his brother snickered from the balcony overlooking the Goblin City, his beady eyes heavy set under dark brows.

"She does?" Grinning, the hunched, lanky figure turned to give his companion a leering grin, his eyes glittering like two black beetles as they moved from the proud, imposing figure to the room surrounding them, mainly the toppled throne, it's great, arching back and supports snapped right in half. "Well, then we might as well give her something to really swoop in on, mustn't we brother?"

"Indeed, we must," Smiled the hawk-like man, shifting his cape around his shoulders like a restless bird rustling its feathers. "but I want you waiting above the shaft for her. No doubt that meddling little stump will try to use her to re-enchant a door, and then all our fun with your favourite little hide-y hole will be over and done. And we need a cage for that pompous chick until we can sever him from this stone monstrosity. The land withers in his absence,"

"Why should **I** go?" Stiffening and standing up a little straighter, the black ropes swathed around him ever so slightly shifting to grace the air with glances of a white underlayer and the tattered, worn edges of his clothes where they drug on the floor. "Why don't you go and see to the little girl? I have things to do, **stuff** to steal."

Sighing and whirling on his sibling, the dark-haired man seemed to grow a foot, his eyes turning into bottomless pits lit by a furious torch, and he swooped down the few steps to loom over his now-cowering brother with his teeth feraly bared. "You'll go, you miserable, grovelling worm, because I told you to." He hissed, his tone icy and raspy with contained rage and volume. It made the hairs o the back of his target's neck go stiff, a shiver rippling down his bent spine, and he floundered for words. "Now go, Kain, or I will be graced with the privilege of caging you like a vapid songbird before I go take care of the would-be king."

"Y-Yes, Malakai..." Kain murmured, scornful eyes not daring rise to meet his aggressor's as he slunk back a few feet, back and head bent supplicantly. "As you wish..." Face twisted in a malicious expression that cast a dark light on his narrow features, Kain backed away in the guise of a low bow, his eyes down and glaring holes in the roughly-hewn stone, and he stormed off furiously when he left the throne room. Any goblin that got in way, he swooped down upon readily, his hand raised for the beating he wished to deliver, and when he finally left the castle, Kain's burning rage had not dulled.

The girl would not succeed.

Not even Sarah thought so as she and Hoggle wandered through the maze of fallen branches and toppled bricks. She had to stop to help him over obstacles sometimes, or to get her bearings in this strange, sickly world, and it felt nothing like the Labyrinth she was used to. Even the Eye Lichen she had encountered that usually perked up and stared was listless, drooping against the stones and blinking slowly.

She made a soft sound in her throat, momentarily distracted from her progress to raise a hand, and she hesitantly lifted one patch of drooping lichen to meet her eyes. her gaze moved from eye to eye, seeing the sad, hopeful look Toby had given her in bed, and she sighed before she carefully let them go. To surprise, some of the lichen seemed to perk up at her attentions, blinking a little more readily as they held themselves up, but all eventually sank back against the stone balefully.

"This is awful..." She said softly, hurrying to catch up with Hoggle as he waited for her at the first turn. He looked small compared to the walls, and she was glad to come up alongside him again, brushing a bit of hair back from her from her face, and she looked around anxiously. With the walls seeming to twist and warp as she stared into the distance, Sarah sighed and rubbed her tired eyes, not caring when the faint shadow she'd put on that morning came away on her fingertips. "The walls... everything is so different like this. I'm not sure."

"Sarah," Hoggle groaned, "you **know** this. You beat the Labyrinth once, you can sure as slop do it again! I'm not even tryin t' stop ya this time!"

"And Toby's not in danger, and I'm not fifteen, and that shmuck king isn't sitting around trying to make everything harder!" Sarah snapped suddenly, her shoulders dropping. "I know what happened last time, but this time is different!" She regretted snapping at him immediately, seeing his bushy brows rise and his eyes widen, and she slouched against the cold stone wearily. "I don't know... when I was here, I was so stubborn. And I needed to get my brother back. But now, I'm just... here. I'm not here for a reason, really."

"Yes, y'are." Hoggle said suddenly, his voice gravelly and low as he caught one of her hands and dragged it out in front of her fiercely. "See that? That black mark on yer finger? Ya made a promise, an yer here to keep yer end of yer promise. An I doubt that promise was t' come here an mope about whatcha gotta do, was it?" He dropped her hand as she stared at the little black marking around her finger, guts rolling, and continued. "Sarah, I know ya don't have no likin for Jareth, but we **need** him. He's the only one who can fix all this commotion, and we need him **soon**. Before it's too late. So please... for us?"

Sarah hadn't expected the father-like sternness from Hoggle, not one bit, and her eyes widened as she listened to him and felt a little ashamed of her teenage griping and moaning about her situation. This was her burden to bear, and she hadn't been forced to make that pinky promise with Toby; she'd gotten herself into this mess, and all she had to do was get Jareth out. How hard could it be?


	6. Chapter 6

Whistling merrily as he settled on the top of the tunnel and leaped down from the roof, his drapes and clothes flapping in the breeze as he turned on the quartet guarding the riddle doors, Kain merely waved his hands at them, eyes bright and cunning. Protests died on their stiffening lips, and soon the liar and the three truth-tellers were solid stone behind their bronze shields.

Satisfied with his magic and tossing them aside casually, the crunch of broken stone meant nothing to the sorcerer as he pushed the right door open and grinned at the trapdoor before a wave of his wrist threw it back and let light pour down. The hands that would usually have stuck out and began to gripe pulled back, pressing back against the slimy walls and gripping their partners fearfully as he peered in, able to see the hatch.

"Goblin King!" He laughed, sounding almost cheerful and innocent as he leaped in and landed gracefully on the closed hatch. "Goblin King, wherever you may be-"

"That's the trouble with magpies..." Jareth's voice floated up out from between the small slots cut into the door, his entire effort going into sounding unperturbed as could be. "is that they have such big mouths. Such noisy, pesky birds." He didn't move from where he lay in the shadows, as far away from the trap door as he could be in the hollowed pit in the stone, and he was surprised to hear Kain laugh instead of receive the furious lash of his tongue.

Strange, he was usually so easy to rile up...

"Hm, such brave words from the chick fallen from his little nest. And such a nice nest you have, Jareth. I'll enjoy keeping it, after I've finished making it over a little... that, and teaching your subjects how to serve their new king."

"Ah," Jareth nodded wearily in the dark, realizing the gesture was useless to him. "so Malakai has finally whipped you into proper submission. Made you the proper younger brother. So good to hear someone could treat you with a firm hand, at last."

Suddenly the harsh sound of a foot stomping on the door rang into the Oubliette's chamber, and Jareth winced at he volume of the noise, his ears ringing with it and Kain's high, reedy laughter. "Again you are **wrong**!" He blurted, his anger and excitement or conflict prompting another harsh stomp on the hatch. "**I** will rule your little hole! There's so much here to oversee, to collect- it will be the Golden Age, for certain! I want everything these pathetic pixies have to offer!"

"You'll get **nothing**." Jareth growled back, his voice smooth but hoarse with strain as Kain kept laughing and ignored him. "I won't let you-"

"You'll do absolutely nothing, **brother**," Kain hissed, the term dripping of his tongue with corrosive sweetness as he straightened in the tunnel and smirked at the hatch. "as you've always done. While I scar your champion, our elder brother will find the enchantment to unchain you from this disgusting rock pile, and we'll be rid of you."

"Sarah..." Jareth couldn't contain the hiss as he inhaled sharply. No.

"'Sarah'~" Kain crooned back, kicking a rock into the pit like a petulant child teasing a dog. "'Sarah'~, 'Sarah'~! Oh 'Sarah'~!" He gagged. "**Disgusting**. To think you fell so far, brother, as to rule these simpletons and court mortals. It will be a blessing to end your life. You've laid such waste to it." And, satisfied with having thrown some sand into his edler brother's wounds, Kain allowed his form to shift and the magpie soared up the tunnel to perch atop the little archway. His beady brown eyes caught on the shattered statues, a shrill cry that could have been laughter bubbling up his throat, and he fanned his feathers to soak up the meager sunlight.

And then, all he had to do was wait, for Sarah was on her way, no matter how slowly. She didn't know anything about the monster lying in wait, or about what her task would really take, and if she did she would have sooner tried to cut off her cursed hand.

"Would you say we're close?" Sarah asked, frowning as she looked around and began to recognize the pillars and the rounded toppers to them all. "This looks about it... I just wish those little goblins hadn't moved my marks, or maybe they'd point us in the right direction. If they were still there, that is."

"I'll say whatever you wanna hear, but that doesn't make us any closer!" Hoggle admitted sourly, looking around as he shuffled along behind her a step. "I know the ways **out**, not the ways **in**!"

"Well, wouldn't it make sense that you could navigate your way back? You came back for me, didn't you?" Sarah protested, in a bit of a temper herself as she leaned against the wall and pushed her hair back from her face. The metal comb her stepmother had gifted her usually worked well at keeping her hair back with a twist and the right position, but it was failing her in her time of need. Sighing, she reset it in her hair one last time and she tried to relax, tried to remember the hectic twists and sudden turns she'd taken in her youth.

"No, a course I don't!" Hoggle told her, stomping a foot harshly. "The Labyrinth is always a changin dependin on where ye stand! It's never the same way goin in as it is goin out! Think **hard**, Sarah!"

"I **am** thinking, okay! I'm trying! it's sort of difficult to remember it after six years!" Sarah was at her wits end, turning around and around, and she groaned as she kicked where two pillars had come together in frustration. "It's not-" Her toe ached sharply. "fair! It just keeps taking us in circles! This is a dead end!"

Suddenly it clicked, and Sarah's open-mouthed frown lifted ever so slightly into a bit of a smile. "No... the dead end... it's behind me." Grinning at Hoggle and turning around, her eyes lit up at the sight of the wall smoothed over and when she turned back there was the doors, although their usual guards were missing. Her breath caught, her heart fluttering quickly, and she grinned at it as she stepped into their little hedged clearing. "I did it, we're here!"

"Toldja ya could." Hoggle muttered, following behind her and looking around warily. "Now, come on."

"But where are the guards?" She asked, looking around aimlessly and wondering if they'd found another spot to stand. "I mean, they're always supposed to be here, aren't they? What happened to them?" As she walked, she suddenly stumbled over a rock and she looked down, only to cry out and see Hoggle go deathly pale. The rock, had been part of a head, frozen in horror, and when Sarah saw the rest, she couldn't help but scream. "Oh my God!"

"Isn't it grand?" Asked Kain, sitting human and bow-legged atop his avian perch. "I find I like them so much better when they're quiet. No pesky riddles now, eh boys~?"


End file.
